New setup,cycle stalled?

[rfraser]

HI everybody,I have crusied the net a lot in the past 3 months especially the last 3 weeks and this site seems to be well organized and a lot of help so here is my first stupid question post. I wil try and make it short.
I have a 58 gal oceanic,405 fluval with carbon and little cylinder shaped things(I know now but to late),protine skimmer (just circulating now not skimming) 2 aquaclear 30gal power heads,2 150watt heaters at 80f, 60lbs of what I was told live rock from lfs, 1.5" of sand like cc ( I know now put to late).
Tank was filled with saltwater and ss then run for a week then added live rock and some "cycle". Live rock was circulating for 2 weeks during which I had a nice green algea cover all my rock and glass, also nice big brown patchs in my ss and water was crystal clear. I have about a dozen feather dusters that are doing great plus some other things growing. I now have 2 mollies(which I feed very little) which are doing great, that were added at the end of the third week now in tank about 10 days, along with 8 hermit crabs all doing great ( had 9 but a hitchhicking mantis shrimp killed one, which I have since caught and killed,Sorry), had a nice little orange colored clam about half the size of an asprin tablet that was opening and closing but now its gone, also lots of microscopic insects in the ss and on the rock which now seem to be making my water just a touch cloudy.
During this whole process I did do 1 10% water change and cleaned my filter once( rinsed everything with fresh water,I know now but to late,should have at least been saltwater) and moved my live rock a couple of times which created a lot of mess.
So now I have 0 nitrites,0 nitrates,8.5 ph, alk 170 but my ammonia has been hung at .25 for the past week( total time 4 1/2 weeks so far).
Should I try to buffer the ammonia down?
What can I do about what seems to micro organisms making my water cloudy?

I appreceiate any help,Thanks Rob.

[Frick-n-Frags]

hard to say, you might actually be starting a cycle right now, or recycling even, or test kit error. All-in-all, you are not messing with a huge bioload and I would bet my dollar that you never will see ammonia and nitrite spikes, or very small ones.

still, time is your greatest weapon as a reefer, and you might want to let things run for another week and retest that ammonia.

also, you might want to invest $1 at the LFS and have them test a water sample with a different ammonia test kit, just in case you are seeing some error in the test kit you have, just for peace of mind.

Like I said, I would guess that tank won't ever cycle unless you pack it full of fish all at once. My tank startups with LR never cycled with measureable amounts of NH3, NO2 or NO3. I just gradually snuck stuff in.

[alexb518]

kinda like what the fricks-n-frags said. you start a new cycle when you add stuff to your tank. it's not (usually) going to be as noticiable as your initial cycle, but there will be one. the reason your tank cycles in the first place is b/c you have that ammonia spike, then nitrites which are converted to nitrate by bacteria--ultimately becomes nitrogen when released. so, the reason you are seeing this increase in ammonia is b/c you increased your bioload when you added the additional tank inhabitants. so, it's going to take time before your tank builds more bacteria in order to break this stuff down. i wouldn't worry too much, unless you really see your ammonia spiking even higher. but, since you said it's been pretty steady, you should see the trites going up pretty soon here.

[slider162]

My bet is your test kit is off. What brand is it? Take a sample down to your LFS.

[2fishy]

I just wanted to say
<img src="/images/welcome.gif" width="500" height="62"><br><b><i><big><big>To Reef Central</b></i></big></big>

and then thought I would mention that when you are rinsing off your filter media, I would use the old aquarium water that you take out, so that you don't kill the beneficial bacteria that you have built up in your filter pads.

[bertoni]

I suspect a test kit problem, as well. I had a Red Sea kit that measured 0.25 ppm ammonia in everything. A couple of double-checks and I returned all my Red Sea test kits.

Since the tank has a reasonable amount of live rock, the other biological filters are not needed, and might cause problems with nitrate later.

[rfraser]

Thanks for the replies. My water has cleared up nicely over night . My tests are still all the same and my ammonia test kit is Aquarium Pharmaceutical . The closest lfs for a reliable water test is 1 1/2 hours away and anytime I get close I do take a sample in just to double check my own results.
Thanks again,Rob.